American missing in Iran named -- trip called private / State Department says retired FBI agent not working for U.S.

Robin Wright, Washington Post

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 4, 2007

2007-04-04 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- A former FBI agent missing in Iran since early last month has been identified as Robert A. Levinson of Coral Springs, Fla., according to U.S. officials and a former colleague

Levinson is a 28-year veteran of both the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, according to a biography on the Web site of Business Integrity International, the consulting firm where he worked until two years ago.

The State Department has not received a response from Iran following a formal query about his whereabouts and welfare, a State Department official said Tuesday.

It was the second message sent by Washington to Tehran through various Swiss diplomatic intermediaries since Levinson was last heard from March 8.

An initial message was sent a few weeks ago, with a follow-up at a higher level on Monday, U.S. officials say.

The Swiss Embassy in Tehran has represented U.S. interests in Iran since relations were cut off in 1980.

Levinson's foreign experience was mainly in Russia and the former Soviet republics, according to the Web site. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that the United States has no credible information about Levinson's situation. The State Department, which has been in constant touch with Levinson's family and employer, has been trying to track his movements for more than two weeks, U.S. officials said.

He was visiting Kish Island, an Iranian resort and free-trade zone off the southwest coast that does not require a visa to visit. He had traveled to Iran from the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials said.

The FBI and State Department have stressed that Levinson was not working in any capacity for the U.S. government or any U.S. agency. A middle-aged man who retired from the FBI more than a decade ago, the American worked in private investigations for corporate clients, according to FBI spokesman John Miller. As an FBI agent, Levinson was not assigned to terrorism or Middle East issues, officials said.

The State Department said Levinson was going to meet someone to set up an interview or interviews for a project involving a book and a documentary by an independent producer and author believed to be from Canada, U.S. officials said. He was doing legwork for what a senior U.S. official described as an innocuous project that "had no connection with anything political."

The official added: "The guy was on a perfectly harmless private activity." But he also may have been doing some work for his own consulting business, U.S. officials said.

The State Department receives information on two or three Americans missing in Iran each year, McCormack said. Although every case is different, some of the missing end up being travelers who do not get in touch with their families. This case does not appear to fit in that mold, however, a U.S. official said.